Fabian TreiberGermany

Treiber’s tools range from brush and stencil to air brushes. Layer by layer, Treiber applies fine glazes using highly pigmented acrylic inks and paste-like masses of paint. His large-format works seem like representations of objects, but the artist’s focus is less on the pure reproduction of reality and rather on recreating his memory thereof and the feeling thus induced—in other words, the transfer of feeling that lies beneath the surface. “It might sound absurd, but my declared goal is by no means the interior or the painting of interiors; it is rather a turning toward the painted object”, says Treiber.

Rooms and objects always grow during the painting process. The flat-looking composition of the picture, the abandonment of a stringent perspective, and the play with varying proportions that appear to be “wrong” show the depicted as an artistic composition and a recreation of a reality that is not factual. Nevertheless, by positioning different objects alongside each other and placing them on top of each other, abstract forms become objects with strange functions. “North on my compass for good paintings is actually always the ‘strange,’ the positively disturbing, and often the ‘awkward,’ something with a certain resistance. Something that shows me I’m dealing with an entity.” This impression also comes to mind when looking at Treiber’s latest cycle of works, which raises questions rather than providing answers. When does an object as such become readable, become a projection screen? What triggers the affect we feel? Treiber’s painting is concerned with this balancing and shifting of the demarcation line that seems to determine our perception and feeling while at the same time always showing us we are dealing with a painted and thus distinct reality.

Fabian Treiber, born 1986, studied painting and intermedia design at the Stuttgart State Academy of Art and Design. He was awarded the Karl Schmidt-Rottluff Scholarship for his work up to 2018. His works have already been shown in solo exhibitions at Kunsthalle Nürnberg, Kunstverein Ludwigsburg, and Galerie Mark Müller in Zurich. A selection of his works is currently being shown at Kunsthalle Düsseldorf.

In October 2017, Fabian Treiber presented his first solo show Front Yardin Ruttkowski;68 gallery’s project space POP;68. His works were also on view at the opening exhibition of the new premises of Ruttkowski;68 in February 2018 in Lichtstraße in Cologne, at this year’s Mixed Pickels group shows at the Michael Horbach Foundation in Cologne, and in Berlin’s Ritterstraße. His works were also represented at the opening of Ruttkowski;68’s new space in Paris in 2018. With More Feeling, Ruttkowski;68 is now granting him his second major solo exhibition.